LAS VEGAS – Just a week after Anthony Pettis became next in line for the UFC’s lightweight title, and not yet an hour after Jose Aldo again defended his featherweight belt, Dana White got a bit of a surprise.

Pettis told the UFC president he wants to drop down to featherweight for a shot at Aldo’s belt.

White, reluctantly at first, made the announcement at the post-fight news conference for UFC 156, at which Aldo beat Frankie Edgar in the main event for his sixth defense of the 145-pound title.

UFC 156 took place at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas with a main card on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

White said he had not yet responded to Pettis, the former WEC lightweight champion.

Pettis (16-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) this past week at UFC on FOX 6 in Chicago stopped Donald Cerrone (19-5 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in the first round, and after the fight White said Pettis was next in line for the lightweight title. Champion Benson Henderson is scheduled to defend that title in April at UFC on FOX 7 against former Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez. Pettis is in line to meet the winner of that fight.

Aldo (22-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) beat Edgar (14-4-1 MMA, 9-4-1 UFC) in a five-round unanimous decision. As for who would be next in line for him, that was up in the air. Ricardo Lamas (13-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) made a case at UFC on FOX 6 with a devastating second-round TKO of Erik Koch to improve to 4-0 in the lightweight division.

If the UFC were to make an Aldo-Pettis fight happen, that would leave Lamas on the outside looking in. But White said a possibility would be that he could fight Chan Sung Jung, “The Korean Zombie,” who currently is sidelined with an injury.

“If (Pettis) went down and fought (Aldo), you do Zombie and Lamas,” White said. “But Zombie’s hurt. Zombie’s out for a while still.” White said he believes Jung might be out until late spring.

White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) following the news conference that if Pettis didn’t wind up making the drop, he was unsure who would be next in line for Aldo.

Aldo said he’s willing to fight anyone the UFC puts in front of him

“It’s up to Dana, but that is an interesting fight,” Aldo said. “I train to fight the best and respect them all. Pettis is almost there with a title shot in his own division, but that would be an interesting fight.”

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